Worst Christmas Song Ever: Silent Night
Forget that it’s been covered by literally thousands of different artists, which is certainly enough to make me loath a song; it’s the first verse of this ever-so-popular tune that irks me most. The other verses are greatness, I just can’t relate to the idea of that night, or anything about the situation, being silent, quiet, calm, etc. I also can’t stand the melody, but that’s not what this post is about…
First you’ve got the circumstances leading up to that night. Mary and Joseph both get the crap scared out of them by angels, then have to deal with the cultural implications of being a pregnant virgin – imagine how fun that must have been! I also wonder if she was a tad freaked out about how exactly the Holy Spirit was going to impregnate her. Ok, so then they’re having to flee to Bethlehem to avoid their son-to-be being killed by Harod. Oh, let’s not forget the pressure of birthing the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!
Enter night-of. My wife gave birth to Jude the all natural way and let me tell you, there is nothing silent or calm about THAT! Mary would have been screaming, Joseph freaking out, baby Jesus crying…and gooey. And the hospital nurses would have…oh, that’s right, THEY WERE IN A FREAKING MANGER!
I suppose there may have been a few moments of quiet after they got Jesus cleaned up and he finally went down for a nap, but those moments would have been short lived. The wise men were on their way, and don’t be fooled into thinking there were just three dudes walking along a quiet road. First of all, where did “three” come from in the first place? Secondly, they would have been traveling with an entourage, not by themselves. And nothing would have been calm for this entourage either as they were traveling down a pretty dangerous road, full of robbers and such. Mary and Joseph would have surely seen or heard these guys coming from a pretty good ways away and might have even been a little freaked out as to who was heading their way.
All of this adds up to a night and circumstance that doesn’t really send out silent quiet vibes. But whatever, I’ll end my rant now. And please note that I’m mostly just ranting for humor’s sake, but make no mistake – I really dislike that song 
EDIT: Brannen, the pastorman, pointed out that the wise men never actually made it to the manger, only the shepherds did. Jerk.
Since I’m talking about night time and I like posting with pictures, here’s one my brother took that I think is pretty dang slick:
Bah Humbug, err, I mean, Merry Christmas!
Haha, agreed.
Amen. I hate that song! Will not be doing it this season. Perhaps I will write one called “It Was Not A Silent Night.”
That song is almost as annoying as the snow on the screen of this blog. I had to copy and paste into a text editor.
Snow? That was weird…apparently WordPress decided to make snow come down everywhere. I’m going to turn that off.
ok, good. Glad that wasn’t you with the snow. -Jonny (sarahkaycarroll is my wife’s account)